[New Azith System Introduction]

Azrael turned to look around him. He heard people crying, their muffled screams for help coming from underneath the rubble. Odd monsters soared through the skies and came out of odd structures he had never seen before. A few meters ahead of him, the group of delinquents who had been spray painting the walls were being devoured by a horde of pale-rotten-skinned humanoids.

*Waaaaaahhhhhhh*

Warning sirens from all over the city rang, but emergency services were nowhere to be seen.

[Seems like everyone was hit,] realized Azrael, as he ran behind a pile of rubble. It was all so confusing, too much to process all at once. In fact, it felt surreal, as if he were just in a dream.

[Where to go, where to go?] wondered Azrael, his first priority was safety. Dream or not, he wasn't going to die, not now. The pile of rubble he was hiding behind was barely large enough to call cover, and the delinquents' screams seemed to have died down, meaning those monsters -or whatever they were- would soon look around for something else to eat.

[I need to search for shelter, perhaps there were a few buildings that weren't hit as hard,] he decided, his body shivering in shock as he looked around. As he searched for shelter he slid behind several piles of rubble large enough to act as cover. The pale-skinned monsters seemed to have appeared all over the city as they were scores of them droning around the city center.

[What are they doing?] wondered Azrael as he watched weird monsters all marching towards a certain area.

[Well it's not like I care much, at least I won't have to de-] his thoughts were derailed when he heard the sound of rocks crumbling behind him. Azrael instantly spun around, punching at the air directly behind him. It was a student from another high school, a girl perhaps judging by the two mounds on her chest. Though there was something utterly wrong with her, she was missing her head.

"A zombie?" whispered Azrael just now realizing why the humanoids seemed so familiar. Perhaps he had already figured it out before, but it just seemed too absurd to be true.

The zombie peeled itself off the ground, rushing towards Azrael with its hands stretched out. Azrael however seemed more intrigued with the way its head had been perfectly sliced off, leaving a clean stump at the base of its neck.

"A sword perhaps?" he wondered as the zombie tried scratching at him. Azrael simply moved to the side. As horrifying as a headless zombie seemed, they were rather slow, and without a head it seemed clumsier than the others. In fact, Azrael perceived no threat from it, it had no mouth to bite him, and its nails weren't even that sharp. He dodged merely out of fear that a scratch might be enough to infect him, but otherwise, he wasn't worried about dying.

[But how is it following me?] he wondered before sweeping the zombie to the ground, and sitting on its back. The fact that the girl had turned to a zombie didn't seem to change the fact that she was still weaker than him.

"Okay wait, I'm getting too ahead of myself. This is real-" as he said this he punched the zombie in the gut, feeling its hard ribs impact against the wound on his knuckles.

"Yes, this is real. It's all real. The blood, the death," he smiled.

"I guess no burning down the school."

[So wait, then the voice I heard. It wasn't just the shock?] he thought to himself, remembering the voice that had spoken to him earlier.

[It said something about... system,] as he thought this, multiple icons appeared into view. He jumped off the zombie, the suddenness of it all startling him. Realizing that he wasn't in pain, he quickly swept the zombie and once again pinned it down.

He took a moment to inspect the icons floating in his vision, reaching out to see if he could grab them. They were ethereal, almost like figments of his imagination.

[Player stats?] wondered Azrael, reading off one of the icons. A split moment later a stream of information was fed into his mind.

┏━━━━━━༻❁༺━━━━━━┓

─────⋅☾ Player Details ☽⋅─────•

[Azrael Hathborn]

[Level 1: 0/100]

[Arcane meter: 100/100]

[Human]

[No debuffs or buffs active]

─────⋅☾ Stats ☽⋅─────•

[0 Unused points]

[Agility: 1]

[Strength: 1]

[Stamina: 1]

┗━━━━━━༻❁༺━━━━━━┛

[Like some kind of game?] he wondered, before thinking about another one of the icons in his view.

[Ability stats]

┏━━━━━━༻❁༺━━━━━━┓

─────⋅☾ Abilities ☽⋅─────

[0 Unused points]

[Sadist's Curse lvl.1]

┗━━━━━━༻❁༺━━━━━━┛

[Sadist's curse?]

┏━━━━━━༻❁༺━━━━━━┓

─────⋅☾ Sadist's curse lvl.1 ☽⋅─────

Description: One of the seven corrupt transcended abilities. Allows the user to absorb the stats of others by inflicting pain. If the target dies during the infliction of pain, their ability will be absorbed as well. However, [Sadist's curse] will only activate if the user is in a state of pleasure during the infliction of pain.

Stats absorbable per second of pain infliction: 1 per stat attribute

Stats absorb cooldown: 0

Maximum stats absorbable per target: 10 per attribute

Maximum stats absorbable per day: 30 per attribute

Stats Absorb Capacity: 100 per attribute

Stolen ability slots available: 3

Ability Steal Cooldown: 7 days

Rarity: Transcended

Ability Rank: E

Overall Ability Rating: Z

┗━━━━━━༻❁༺━━━━━━┛

"You've got to be kidding me," laughed Azrael, rereading his ability description multiple times.

"This, this has got to be the bes-"

*Boom*

A loud boom thundered from a few meters ahead of him, sending rubble flying into the air. Azrael hunched over, to make sure he was not seen. He couldn't run away now as the zombie would most probably follow him and give out his location.

"This is easier than Elder Ring," laughed a boy from where the boom originated.

"Anyway, levels, levels," he whispered gingerly, before yet another boom.

[Fuck, just what I need, a crazy. Of course, I'm not the only one who finds this exciting. It's probably a dream come true for Sir booms-alot over there,] thought Azrael to himself.

"P-please stop Eino, I-I'll do whatever you want. I'll let you- let you have your way with me. Please, just stop this," screamed a girl.

[A girl?] thought Azrael, hunching down even lower.

"My way with you?"

[Come on, don't fall for it man,] thought Azrael, somewhat annoyed by the boy's lack of resolve to kill her.

"Y-yes, I'll let you do whatever you want with me," said the girl, agreeing a little too fast.

Silence ensued for a few moments, then suddenly Azrael heard a groan, before a loud thud.

"Disgusting! Fuck you, fuck you, fuck you!" shouted the girl, followed by multiple thuds.

[What the hell is going on there,] thought Azrael as he crept up to look over the pile of rubble he was hiding behind. The girl was smashing a rock against what looked like a dead body.

[So this is how it's going to be, huh?] thought Azrael, realizing he wouldn't be able to trust anyone. Though he wasn't planning on doing so, it was a fresh slap to the face, reminding him that people would be even more dangerous than usual.

Azrael stood up even more, ever so slightly -intrigued by the brutality with which the boy's head was being cracked open- when the zombie underneath him swung its arms and hit some rocks to the ground.

"Who's there?" asked the girl, whipping her head around.

[Fuck,] thought Azrael, cursing himself for his slip-up.